Nails of the week – purple and glitter

Glitter. Things change but one thing remains: my love for glitter. Actually, it increases. I cannot get enough.  Sparkly sparkly – I definitely suffer from magpie syndrome.

This week I am wearing an amazing deep metallic purple nail polish from Kiko, 255, which is suspended with holographic silver glitter.

To make it even more sparkly, I added some gradual glitter – silver holographic, from Andrea Fulerton (yes, those little puffs are the gift that keep giving!).

And voilá – pretty, shiny, sparkly. Love it. Application was fine, a bit messy with glitter but not too bad. Durability was also great.

Sadly, it didn’t photograph as well as it looked; the first one is definitely the closest. I really tried and this is the best it came out… maybe next time!

purple nails with silver holographic glitter

Rating:

4_star

Product review: Skinetica anti-blemish

skinetica blemish treatmentI was really excited to receive Skinetica – the promise to fight acne alone makes it go half way up in my good books! Having struggled for more than half of my life time with acne, this is an extremely touchy subject for me. Heart pouring posts have been written only to never see the light of day. Maybe one day they will….

But for now, let’s talk about Skinetica, an anti-blemish treatment with no harsh chemicals, no side effects, gentle to the skin, non-toxic, non-staining and non-greasy. Yes, sounds way too good.

The active ingredient is Quaternary Ammonium Chloride with a Sylyl base, to stick to the skin – none of the usual benzoyl peroxides and salicylic acids. Basically, it means that this is straight from a chemistry lab to work at a molecular level on the skin (the particles are really small and absorbed quickly by the skin, staying put) and killing the bacteria.

The packaging is simple: a plastic tube, flip open top, nothing fancy, all functional. It looks like water, the smell is almost nonexistent. The indication is to apply to clean skin (if you apply over a product, it won’t work!) with a cotton wool pad twice a day and let it dry. Once dried, it is chemically inert (it won’t come off or dilute) and you won’t feel anything. You should re-apply every 12 hours, as this is the time one application will keep working, even if you wash your face. I use it morning and evening – I apply it in the morning and after the product is completely dry I put my make-up on as usual and at night, I cleanse my face, let it dry and then apply moisturiser. I have been using it daily fora month now.

This product caught me at the bitter end of my worst breakout in eight years. Yes, awful. I stopped the antibiotics and topical solution (which didn’t seem to be doing much anyway) and  in a brave move, stuck to this. Just this. I must point out that my spots are usually quite deep, medium to large in size and extremely persistent.

So, does it work? Well, for me, I felt it really made spots go away quicker. They don’t become sore and angry anymore. I usually have the type of spots that takes weeks, sometimes months, to vanish, and occasionally culminate in a yellow tip (eeew, I know). I could really feel a difference with this product..

Do I think it prevented  new spots from coming up? Well, I cannot say for sure. I tend to think it did. I certainly have less than I had at the time I started – it is worth pointing out that was an unusually bad patch for me, but the improvement could well be due to the product. I still have a couple, but who knows how it would be now?

Having said all that, what really makes like this even more is that it’s really gentle to the skin. In a sad way, I am used to harsh products – peeling, tightness and redness have been part of my life for a long time. With this product, I had nothing. It has been great; my skin is not dry, irritated or sensitive – just normal. Also, for the first time in my life, I am using only one acne related product on my face on a daily basis. This, for me, is quite something.

At the retail price (under £10 for one bottle, including p&p), there is no way you shouldn’t try if you suffer from blemishes – superficial or deep. I really recommend it, it is really worth a go – and that is coming from someone who tried everything. I mean EVERYTHING. And my skin seems very happy with it.

I will purchase another bottle to keep using, as regular use will have no long term undesired effects – anything to keep the spots at bay, better if it is only one product that works and is not aggressive!

You can find more information about the product and purchase it here.

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week – colour shifting glitter flakes

colour shifting glitter flakes nailsOh, I love this. Pretty pretty pretty! You all know how much I love a glitter flake nail polish. Really. I cannot have enough of them!

This time I tried Specialittá Hits Mundo das Danças in Cha Cha Cha, a clear base laden with beautiful colour shifting glitter flakes that on a dark base, will change from a fiery reddish-orange through gold to forest green. AMAZING!!!

I used two coats of Barry M in Black and applied only one coat of the flakie. The quality is great, it is so saturated with flakes that one effortless coat will create a fantastic effect, covering the black very well!

colour shifting glitter flakes nails - somanylovelythings

Application was very easy and durability is also great. I am seriously in love!

Rating:

5_star

Product review: myface.cosmetics liquid eyeliner

myface.cosmetics liquid eyelinersI mentioned this before, at a product review and also eye make-up look challenges, but I thought it deserved a separate post, as every colour I use, I fall more in love with this!

The metallics are really vivid, and striking with only one stroke (I tend to go for two, as I like to really saturate the colours, especially for pictures!) and they have a fantastic range of colours. Application is great – the brush is thin and easy to use, pretty much fool-proof. I tend to avoid liquid, favouring gel or felt tip pens, but this one really changed my mind – they got it right.

The consistency is fluid enough to apply easily, but not too runny. It also dries very quickly, so no smudges – the precise lines sit exactly where they should be – and stays there.

These liners are an easy way of giving your make-up that extra oomph – a little splash of colour that really makes a look different!

To see some of them in action, check some of my eye make-up look challenge posts where I used a some of the colours on a raspberry/orange (metallic orange/copper – tequila sunrise), festive gold (gold – gilt-y) and this light pink/green (metallic charcoal – black ice).

You can get myface.cosmetics here.

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: nude and red

nude and red nails somanylovelythingsYes, you read it right. I have nude on my nails at the moment. Yes, I also thought this day would never come… but I had a nail emergency: I came back from holidays, was going out the day after, had to be at work and had no time to sort out my nails. The previous mani was past its prime and I had to take it off… so came up with a quick fix: wear a base coat and do a red french manicure. But I loved it so much that I decided to do it properly, and they ended up being my new years’ eve manicure!

So I used Nails Inc Basil Street, a lovely nude that applies beautifully – no streaks and a solid coverage with two coats. Then I applied Colorama’s Tapete Vermelho on the tips to create the French manicure.

I am in love with this look – it is simple and so effortlessly elegant… a classic with a very little twist.

Durability has been great, seven full days – I did have a breakage, now both my thumbs are far from perfect (one is awful, hence being missed from the photos).

What do you think? I love French manis, really do… planning my next one already!

Rating:

5_star

Product review: myface.cosmetics blusher

myface.cosmetics blusher in lady monaco and costa del soul Myface.cosmetics sent me (via their lovely PR guys, NBPR) a lovely bag of products for my skin colour to try a while ago. This brand actually has a complete make-up for different types of complexions: fair, medium and medium dark, with foundation, concealers, powders, lip liners, lipstick and lip glosses in shades designed to suit your skin tone, and categorised as such, thus making the right choice a bit easier. They also have amazing eye shadows, eye liners, mascaras and nail polish!

I have been using some of the eye liners which are fabulous, and amongst the great make-up selection I received, there were two R&B rouge/blushers: lady monaco and costa del soul.

Really great products, very well pigmented, good staying power and easy to blend. Packaging is lovely – a mirror finish case with a small brush inside. It is slightly on the large side though, to carry around your make up back, but it is very slim so it just gets away with it.

Lady monaco is warm pink (but not too pink), almost matt, with a very subtle shimmer. Although the colour is very vivid to the eye, when applied it is very delicate and adds a lovely flush of colour to the cheeks. I tend to avoid pink blushers, but this one is very wearable, especially when wearing pinker lipsticks.

Costa del soul has a more orange based, a dark peach with shimmer without being too “metallic”. I love peach-coloured blushers, so this is a total winner. Again, looks stronger than it turns out on the face; it doesn’t look too harsh, creating a soft hint of colour to the cheeks!

They are now part of my make-up routine!

You can get myface.cosmetics here.

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Eye make-up look challenge: festive gold

Festive gold eye make-upOooh the festive mood… it is in the air… everywhere you look… Here, at So Many Lovely Things it’s no different. Nothing better than a lovely black and gold smokey eye to go with it, right?

I started by applying the gold eyeshadow across the whole lid. I then applied the black with gold flecks to the crease and swept out and upwards, following a 45 degree “line” from the outer corner of my eyes.

I then applied black eyeliner on the upper lash line, with a nice flick, followed by a gorgeous metallic eyeliner above it, creating a slightly longer flick.

I then applied black eyeshadow to line the lower waterline and lash line, and applied the gold eyeliner slightly below the lash line, creating another flick at the end, in the same direction of the upper lashline.

I then applied a light eyeshadow to highlight the brow bone and sprinkled the gold dust around the brow bone and towards the inner corner of the eye, and finished off with some mascara and gorgeous false lashes.

Great for New Years eve!!!

Products I used:

  • Urban Decays eyeshadows in zephyr (book of shadows IV), jagged and blitz (vice)
  •  Collection 2000 felt tip pen liner
  • myface.cosmetics liquid eyeliner in gil-ty
  • MAC eyeshadow in carbon
  • Mac Zoomlash mascara
  • Kryolan glamour sparks in golden
  • Eylure eyelashes in vintage 124 (if you look really closely you’ll notice they are not perfectly applied – had one of those nightmare days where the lash doesn’t want to sit in properly, unluckily  it was on my “model” eye… oh well)
  • Beauty boxes brushes (first time I used them – they are great!)

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Difficulty:

eye make up look - medium

Shoe fund 2012 cashed in

Christian Louboutin red shoes - somanylovelythings shoe fundIt’s been more than two years now –  I finally stopped going on about it – but I could not be happier with my shoe fund – it gave me beautiful decolleté in 2011 and I wanted to share (better late than ever, I suppose) the fruits of the 2012 fund. I shall never look back.

Nude was on my mind. And throughout the whole year I was set on a classic pair of nude shoes. However , at the last minute I saw red. Literally, I just had this urge to buy red shoes.

Given the colour choice, I thought I’d go for another designer, and not cave into my usual Louboutin obsession, as red on red seemed a bit odd. Blahnik and Choo were head to head – or toe to toe, if you prefer a foot based comparison for this post’s illustration purposes.

But then I fell in love (and as you know, I go totally blind when I fall in love) and the shoe fund 2012 materialised in the shape of the lovely patent, pointy-toed and needle heeled Christian Louboutin Decolleté. Red on red never looked so good to me. I cannot even believe that for a moment I thought it wouldn’t work.

What a beauty – they have already been worn. Now, nude probably got bumped to next year. May be. Shoe fund 2013 is already growing….

Read more about the my shoe fund.

My last minute spot at the BBloggersXmas event

I found out about this event very last minute, thanks to Grace from All that slap – and I am so glad they had a little place available for me.

This networking event took place really close to my home, at the Reebok bar in Canary Wharf and it was beautifully organised by Lola, from Lola Star Hearts and Victoria, from Victoria’s Beauty and Fashion Review blogs.

Lot of talk about it was going on Twitter (I am still not quite sure how I completely missed it!). Everyone was excited and thinking about outfits! I hadn’t thought about that yet, and panicked a little bit, as I was sure everyone was going to look lovely, so I settled for American Apparel wet(ish) leggings, a burgundy leather peplum from H&M, Louboutin black courts, a multicoloured necklace also from H&M, grey/black smokey eyes and burgundy lipstick (MAC’s Diva).

Around 65 bloggers, I hear, attended the event – an amazing turnout. There were some brands demo-ing their products, such as Slendertone, Aromatherapy Associates, Diva hair styling products, Bad Apple polishes, Bronze Ambition and Twisted Sista hair products. There was a quiz and twitter prize draws – lucky me here got a glass nail file with Swarosvki crystals!

There were cakes pops, Pop Chips (yum yum yum!) and lots of lovely bloggers to meet and chat away! The atmosphere was great! I find that people say bloggers are not very friendly to other bloggers, but I am not sure where people get this from – every event I attended, everyone I met was super lovely and friendly and I always have a great time!

Thank you very much Lola and Victoria, it was an awesome event, really well organised and a goodie bag to really die for – and early Christmas treat (it was like opening my stocking in the morning) and which will generate plenty of reviews!!!

Nail polish storage solution

I finally got round to  putting all my nail polishes, tools and accessories in one place. My boyfriend got me this box from Argos – a truly bargain buy!

It is really great to have everything in one place I can move around. The box, however,  is quite heavy when loaded. The box is of alright quality and all the movements are smooth.

Although I manage to fit everything I have… sadly, although it is a new solution, I am already running out of space!!!

Crazy!

What about you? Where do you store you nail polishes?